Seeing
by Mercury Gray
Summary: Now only a small child, Prince Rilian is shown a glimpse of his future by one of his mother's friends, a woman who knows all too well about the whims of Fate.


Seeing: A Chronicles of Narnia/ Lord of the Rings crossover

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This is a little story I've been working on for a while. It's been bumming around on my computer ever since I finished A Jewel in the Crown, and I thought that maybe it was time to let it out of the box and into the sunlight.

The primary inspiration for this story came from the fact that I always tend to picture Ramandu's Daughter as a younger version of Cate Blanchett's interpretation Galadriel in Lord of the Rings – fair, but perilously fair, as many of the Men of the South are prone to saying. Some of the skills alluded to in this story are first mentioned in A Jewel in the Crown, but you do not have to be familiar with that story to understand this one.

* * *

The garden of Renavulte castle appeared quiet to the average listener. But Rilian, Crown Prince of Narnia and son of Caspian the Tenth, knew better. He was hunting invisible werewolves, the worst kind, and soon, Mama was going to come and help him with her star powers. Mama was always very clever about how she helped Rilian save the kingdom from all the monsters he hunted for her and Papa, and she was always ready at the end of the day to give him a treat or tell him a story when he was tired and all the monsters were dead. Then there was a real rustle across the garden, and Rilian peeked over the bushes he was hiding behind to see a tall woman with long blonde hair and a silvery-blue dress inspecting the flowers. "Mama!" he cried, running out from his hiding place and rushing to embrace her, though at seven he did not quite come up to her waist.

But this wasn't Mama – her dress was too cold and she didn't smell right, not like Mama's perfume. When Rilian looked up, he saw an entirely different face than his mother's, a face that looked amused nevertheless at being mistaken for the Queen. "You're not my mama," Rilian complained. The other woman laughed. It sounded a lot like Mama's laugh to Rilian, but he didn't want to tell her that.

"No, I am not your mother, Prince Rilian," The woman answered. She even sounded like Mama when she spoke!

"Well, then…who are you?" Rilian asked, wondering now very much who this pretty lady who looked like Mama was. Did he have an Aunt he didn't know about? All the other children he played with had Aunts and Uncles, and Rilian was a little disappointed that he didn't. And Uncle Drinian and Uncle Llyr didn't count, because they weren't really Papa's brothers, just his friends.

"I am a friend of your mother's who has traveled a long way to see her," the woman answered, sitting down on a garden bench.

Rilian nodded. Mama had to have had friends when she had lived across the sea, on the island with all the wonderful creatures that she filled his bedtime stories with – this woman was probably one of them. The young prince cocked his head to the side, wondering about something else. "How did you know my name?" he asked curiously.

"I know many things," the woman said mysteriously. "I know that you are seven years old, and that it is your greatest wish to see your mother's country beyond the sea and have great adventures like your father's, and that just now you have been hunting invisible werewolves in the garden to prove to him that you are ready to go on a hunting trip with him."

Rilian gaped – no grown-up except for Mama ever knew what he did out here. The woman smiled. It was such a comforting smile, and one so full of the same fun that Mama's face filled with when she was playing with Rilian, that the little prince couldn't help but ask,

"Would you like to play with me?"

"I am afraid I am no good at hunting invisible werewolves," the woman admitted sadly. "I would probably not help you very much. I might even scare them away," she said, her eyes wide.

"We could play something else!" Rilian suggested brightly. "I'm sorry," Rilian said, realizing something. "I don't know your name," he admitted with a little scuffle of his shoe on the paving stone.

"I have many names, Prince Rilian," the woman said. "Some call me Nerwen, and others Alatariel."

"Well, what should I call you?" Rilian asked, bewildered. He'd never met anyone with more than one name.

"You may call me Artarnis," the woman divulged with a smile. "That is what your mother calls me."

"Artaris," Rilian said, trying to get the feel of the strange syllables around his tongue. His father's name, Caspian, was easy to say because it sounded like his name, Rilian (and it was spelled the same, too) but his mother's name was hard – Aleybis didn't exactly roll of the tongue of a seven year old. "Arataris," he repeated. "Artarus?" The woman laughed again, watching him contort his face as he tried to say it how she had said it.

"I think you quite have it, Rilian. Now, what game would you like to play?"

But Rilian's mind was quite gone from playing games or slaying invisible dragons – his eyes had settled on the mysterious looking package at the end of the lady's bench, a long, thin box wrapped in a blue velvet bag. "What's in there?" he asked, pointing one slightly grubby finger at the magical looking container.

"Would you like to see it?" Artarnis asked with interest. Rilian nodded vigorously, and the lady pulled the blue bag away from the box, setting it beside her as she opened the box and pulled out a large silver basin, with low sides and etchings of leaves around the edges. She placed it reverently on the box and took from another bag that stood beside the bench a tall silver ewer. Rising from the bench, she walked to the fountain in the garden wall, the one with the lion's head spout spitting water into a pool of dancing satyrs and Maenads, and filled the ewer, walking back to the bench and setting the full container beside her as she sat down again.

"What is it?" Rilian asked, confused once again. What was so special about a big silver plate?

"It is a mirror – a magic mirror," Artarnis revealed. "Will you look inside?" she asked kindly, and once he had heard the question, Rilian had a sudden feeling in his mind that he never could have said no, even if he had wanted to.

"What will I see?" Rilian asked, having heard much from both his mother and father about magic and knowing that most bewitched things were usually up to no good.

"Even the wisest of men do not know that question, Rilian. You will decide what the mirror will show you. Things that were, or things that are, or even things that have not come yet," Artarnis said, pouring the water and raising her pitcher once, twice, three times over the basin. She set it back down and beckoned to Rilian. "Now you may look."

Rilian stepped up to the garden bench and cautiously looked into the pool of water. For a moment, he could see his face, swimming uncertainly in the still-moving ripples, but then he saw his face changing, getting older, and the sky behind him growing darker, as if night was falling. He looked up, but saw only blue clouds and sunshine. He looked back at the pool and saw the image remained the same.

"What do you see, Rilian?" Artarnis asked, her voice soft and soothing, like Mama's voice at bed-time.

Rilian studied the image, his eyes squinting into the depths of the mirror, which seemed to have gotten much deeper now that Aratarnis had poured water into it. "I see me, getting older…I'm wearing armor, like Papa, and going on great hunts and adventures in the woods!"

"Is there anything else?" Artarnis prompted, her voice still soft and smooth as silk.

Rilian squinted – the images were swirling, becoming distorted, like a veil of fog or mist was being pulled over the mirror. "There are lots of trees, and I'm on a horse – I'm with Mama, in a forest..." The mist was rising from the mirror now, and he was cold…very, very cold…

There was a flash of brilliant green, and then the mirror went calm. Rilian stepped back with a jolt, looking around and wondering where the color had come from. The mist was still floating over the mirror, and Artarnis' calm expression had been exchanged for one of worry.

"Is something wrong?" Rilian asked – whenever Mama looked like that he knew that he'd done something wrong, or Papa was in trouble.

"It is nothing to do with you, Rilian," Artarnis assured him, smiling again and nodding to herself. "I am sure of it."

Rilian nodded solemnly, still a little unconvinced that he had not done the right thing. Perhaps, if he looked in the basin again, and tried really, really hard, he might see what she wanted him to.

But when he turned back to ask Artarnis if he could try again, she was looking away, to the far corner of the garden, where a tall, stately woman in the deep royal purple robes and diadem of the Queen of Narnia was walking, accompanied by some three or four attendants.

"Mama!" Rilian cried, running over and hugging his mother's legs through her heavy court dress, mindless of the dirt he had all over him.

"Rilian!" the Queen said in surprise, prying her son gently away from her body so she could see his face and stroke a lock of his hair away from his eyes. "Oh, my big baby boy, what have you been doing today? You have dirt all over your knees!" she announced, inspecting her son. "Did you get away from Nurse again?"

"I was hunting invisible werewolves. And then I met your friend from Aslan's country and she let me look in her mirror and I saw myself being a great hero!"

"Did you now?" Queen Aleybis asked with a smile, taking her son's hand and letting him lead her to the garden bench where her friend sat. The other woman rose with a large smile when she saw the Star's Daughter, and kissed her on the cheek in greeting. "Artarnis. It has been many, many years since I have taken your counsel," The Queen said with a welcoming smile. "How fare things in Aslan's country?" she asked, sending her attendants away to the far side of the garden with a wave of her hand so she could converse in private with her friend.

"They are well, just as they are always well," Artarnis said. "Full of joy, and laughter, and music. Earendil and Alambil send their greetings to you, and the Empress Elbereth sends her love to her least-seen and best beloved godchild."

"How you bring it all back for me," the Queen of Narnia said reminiscently, jogged from her memories by the insistent tug of her son on her skirts.

"Mama, can we play now?" Rilian begged. Aleybis looked at her friend and then at the mirror on the bench, and looked sadly at her son.

"Rilian, Mama is sorry, but Artarnis came a long, long way to see me today, and she and I have very important things to discuss. Do you think you could be a very patient boy, just this once, and give Mama until after dinner to have your play time?"

Rilian's shoulders sagged. "I guess," he said, looking down at the ground, the picture of disappointment. Aleybis bent down and kissed her son's cheek.

"Thank you for being such a big boy for Mama, Rilian."

The Crown Prince dragged his feet away from the garden, settling down in the bushes out of his mother's sight to wait. He could still hear them talking, though, as his fingers traced patterns in the dirt.

"You know why I am here, Aleybis," Artarnis said, every tone in her voice a warning of some impending, long anticipated catastrophe.

"You have come to offer counsel, or to warn me. I gather from your mirror that you have allowed my son to See," the Queen accused.

"He is a bright boy, and a credit to his birth. The blood of a Firstborn is strong in him -- His sight is clearer than the pure Sons of Adam." Son of Adam? Rilian turned around to watch the two women, confused. He wasn't a son of Adam! Caspian was his father's name. Caspian the Tenth, King of Narnia!

"And what did he See?" Aleybis asked. Rilian noticed that his mama's voice was frightened – Mama was never frightened of anything. What was it about this seeing that was scaring his Mama?

"What I have always seen for him…and for you. Do you remember what has been fortold for your son?" Artarnis asked, using the same gentle, soothing voice she had used when Rilian was looking into her mirror.

Mama looked sad, and she looked down at her slippers, sighing. "I have not had cause to remember those tidings since I left the Daughters of Light for the Daughters of Eve. I had forgotten until now what pain I will bring to my husband."

Mama wouldn't hurt Papa! Rilian thought to himself. She wouldn't give him pain! What was she talking about?

"Human life is pain, Aleybis. To remain young while your husband ages is also pain. Surely you know this from your years of Far Sight. Surely Aslan warned you when you first Saw Caspian. To let you have him you must also be taken away before his heart is broken in a far greater way."

"Yes, I was warned," Mama said, and there was great heaviness in her voice, as though her sadness weighed her down. "I thank you, friend, for your tidings. I am sorry your welcome was not better."

"Rilian was all the welcome I needed," Artarnis said with a fond smile. "Your son is a light in your household."

"May all yours sons be the same," Aleybis responded. Artarnis' smile faded, and she nodded, obviously vexed with the memory of something she would not share with her friend. "Will you not stay with us a while? Renevulte has many rooms, and my husband would be happy to meet you," The Queen suggested. "We still have much to discuss, I gather, in places where no others will hear."

Artarnis inclined her head gracefully in acceptance of the offer, and the Queen summoned over one of her ladies, commanding her to take the lady to her private sitting room while a bedroom was prepared. Once more the Queen was alone, standing alone in the garden, looking after Artarnis as she left. When her friend was out of sight, her shoulders fell, and she hung her head, sighing deeply as though something troubled her very heavily.

"Mama, are you going to die?" Rilian asked desperately once everyone had gone, scrambling out from under the bushes where he had been hiding.

"Rilian?" Aleybis asked, turning around with something that looked a great deal like horror on her face. "Are you still – No, no, precious, I'm not going to die," she assured him quickly, sitting down and taking him in her arms. "At least not soon. Everyone has to die eventually, but I'm not going to die for a long, long time." She held her son's fair-haired head against her breast, stroking the thick curls with a comforting hand. Rilian thought he felt something hot and moist patter on his scalp – was Mama… crying?

"I could save you!" Rilian offered. "I could save you from whatever it was that was coming after you and then you won't have to go to Aslan's country!" he looked up into his mother's face, and she quickly turned away, wiping her face with a handkerchief and turning back to her son, smiling so bravely and earnestly for his mother.

Aleybis smiled sadly and nodded for her son. "Yes, Rilian, I am sure you would try to save me. Of that I have no doubt…" She was silent, lost in thought again, and Rilian squeezed her hand to get her attention again. Just like that, she remembered herself, and she was back to being Mama, with a smile on and the sadness forgotten. "I am sorry, Rilian, my mind is everywhere today. Would you like to go to kennels and see the new puppies?"

"Yes please!" Rilian exclaimed, bounding off with his mother in tow. Any thoughts of death or of the lady Artarnis were forgotten, and the flash of green was gone from his mind as quickly as it had come, leaving nothing behind to trace its path. He would not remember that day in the garden or the news that had frightened his mother so much until many years later when he was the man in the mirror, a man capable of bearing arms, and the green flash reappeared again, and all that was foretold came to pass.

* * *

Did it have a point? No. Did I enjoy writing it? Yes. Did you enjoy reading it? You'll have to tell me, I don't read minds.

For those of you who didn't get it, Aratarnis was one of many names given to Galadriel. I didn't want the crossover to be too obvious.

I was reading a book in the library the other day called "The Gospel According to Tolkien" in which the author posits that Elbereth in Tolkien's mythology occupies a position much like Mary's in the Catholic tradition, a benevolent being who answers the prayers of us poor mortal people still suffering on earth. For those of you unfamiliar with this tradition, it is also important to know that she is also sometimes called Holy Queen. For this reason, I have let her become "Empress Elbereth" in balance with the Emperor across the Sea who is Aslan's father. In a Christian interpretation of the CoN, Aslan represents Christ and The Emperor across the Sea represents God, so adding a Mary figure is in some respects an unsubtle leap.


End file.
